Last night, I was watching the first show of the new season of Gold Rush.
I see Parker driving through some non- Alaska - Canadian terrain.
Then they tell us he's on his way to meet with the Viking, Tony. Tony is wintering down at his house in Arizona.
Later I see that they are supposedly in Crown King, AZ.
I have been to a couple of places in AZ but I never heard of Crown King.
When I google it, there it is! Man that is remote!
Have any of you Arizona guys been there or even heard of it?


Crown King, Arizona - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Yep. When I was a Boy Sprout back in the early 1950s, we used to go up there to camp out. It's located North of Phoenix, take the Bumble Bee exit (#248) just North of Black Canyon City, off of I-17, and head west. It's about 20 miles along the rather unimproved road. There's enough elevation there to allow plenty of pine trees. Well off the beaten path - not too many folks have heard of it.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

It was always a cool spot to go to in the heat of the summer days...But a 4 wheel drive is pretty much a must....

John, have you ever been to BumbleBee? Years back I used to fly into a "patch there at BumbleBee"...

"BumbleBee Bob" the owner, and then fly out, and take him over to Santa Fe...It didn't get it's name "BumbleBee" from the flowers..

One of the things I still remember about the place is, Bob had that house built to to look like a house from the Texas Hill country...All open air, with the staircase going up to one of the bedrooms, and that over looked the lower portion of the house....Neat place.

And then there is "Skull Valley"!!!!!!


WuzzFuzz

Think I'll take the kids up there over Veterans Day weekend. Been in Arizona for 22 years, but never been any closer than I-17. Anybody know if there are any places up that way to shoot? Not formal range type, just out in the boonies?

Crown King is certainly in the boonies, I would think that shooting opportunities would be pretty good on that long lonesome road.
In the middle 70's I worked on a ranch in Yavapia county north of there. The guy I worked for had worked on a ranch there in the Crown King area in the 60's, and talked a lot about it.
The ranch was owned by Everett Bowman, a legendary ranchman and former rodeo cowboy and by all accounts a hell of a man.

At first I didn't know he was in Az, then I noticed that snake taking up half the road, wait a minute, he can't be in Alaska.

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Don

When you guys go there, why don't you ask around and find out if Tony Beets actually does have a winter house in Crown King.
It could be just a reality show 'reality' and his real house is on a golf course in Scottsdale.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Well we have been here ten years now and traveled quite a bit instate but
we had never heard of it.

Me 2! Was wondering how Tony, who we were told the other night is originally from the Netherlands, now lives in Canada -
Can find a remote ghost town that most of us never heard of.
Then buy a house and live there.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Crown King is a neat place up in the Bradshaw Mountians and it's quite the drive to get up there. The place has quite the spooky reputation. If you go there's a bar at the top within the settlement where you can get a burger and a beer. You can also drive across the Bradshaws from there and you'll come out in Prescott but it's best to have 4 wheel drive if you're going to do this.
The whole area is just sparesly populated so finding a place to shoot shouldn't be much of a problem.
If you turn to the right rather than left for Bumblebee off I17 you end up on a interesting road that goes thru Bloody Basin. It's very scenic and there's lots of Indian ruins to view.
Jim

We used to winter in a camp at Stanton AZ. It's about 20 some miles, as the crow flies, west of Crown King. Both definitely in the boondocks...

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

The drive from Crown King to Prescott is on the old Senator Highway. Dirt all the way and not maintained. There are pockets of active gold claims all along there being worked by some true characters. By all means, respect ALL the Keep Out signs, those folks are serious.
Some years ago I spent about a week camping and driving that road from Prescott down through Crown King and beyond. The road becomes almost non existent and quite steep as it descends towards the backside of Lake Pleasant. Coming around a sharp turn on one narrow track with a steep talus slope on the driver's side and a dropoff on the passenger's side we encountered an ancient 2wd Ford stopped in the road. We could see through the back window two grey ponytailed heads. We sat there a minute. Nothing moved. It was hot as all get out.
You think they're dead I asked my pal. Then I noticed a whiff of smoke drift out of the driver's window and noticed the pickup was parked under the shade of a cottonwood that was growing out over the road from the drop off side. So I got out and ambled up to the driver's window. A very old man and his woman, both looking basically like beef jerky in clothes. Around the gearshift is a holster rig and an old looking Vaquero.
Said howdy, they said howdy back. I asked are you having trouble. Old guy says nope, why? I said well are you going to move on to a wider spot so we can pass? He sticks his head out the window and looks up at the tree overhang and says in a couple of hours, yeah....
I said we have beer and ice, how about we have a few? Turned out they were scratching out an existence in a little diggings on down the road and that tree was their coolest spot for miles around in the heat of the afternoon. Nice folks but if we'd insisted on their moving I bet we would have come up on the short end of the stick.

Good manners and patience will get you through, generally. Good story.

It's just east of my winter place, we're 10 miles south of Stanton.
It's nice up there.
tb

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